Zimbabwe on Tuesday launched its strongest criticism of black farmers who benefited from its controversial land reforms, saying their apathy was responsible for a serious food crisis.
”We have a few people that are really committed to production while many others are doing nothing on the farms,” Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sylvester Nguni was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.
”The problem is that we gave land to people lacking the passion for farming and this is why every year production has been declining.”
He said although an ongoing drought had contributed to reduced yields, ”the biggest let-down has been that people without the slightest idea of farming got land and the result has been declining agricultural output.”
Nguni’s remarks at a congress of the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union came on the heels of warnings by the country’s two vice-presidents that the government would reclaim under-utilised farms.
”We will not hesitate to reclaim all the under-utilised farms and allocate [them] to other farmers,” Vice-President Joseph Msika was quoted as saying two weeks ago.
”We do not want people who simply build homes at their new farms without using the land for productive purposes and we want people to work the land to avoid chronic food shortages.”
Zimbabwe’s land reforms, which began, often violently, in 2000 after the rejection in a referendum of a government-sponsored draft Constitution, have seen about 4 000 white farmers lose their properties.
Seized land has been distributed to landless farmers in a move that the government has said is designed to correct imbalances created by colonial rule, when the majority of prime farmland was owned by about 4 500 whites.
But critics of the land reforms say most beneficiaries lack farming knowledge and depend on government handouts while others were sitting on fallow land.
International aid agencies estimate that about 4,3-million people out of Zimbabwe’s population of 13-million require food assistance.
Last month co-Vice-President Joyce Mujuru labelled new farmers who were under-utilising the land ”saboteurs” and ”perennial beggars”.
Central Bank chief Gideon Gono last week hit out at new farmers keeping farmland purely for its own sake and turning once productive farms into ”weekend picnic venues” while the country is reeling under acute food shortages.
”We are not blind to the fact that it was not land for the sake of having it and merely looking at it that mattered to our liberators. It was not about having vast pieces of land and using them as braai [barbecue] spots and weekend picnic venues,” Gono said.
Opposition lawmaker suspended
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s main opposition movement has suspended a lawmaker who claimed his party received $2,5-million in illegal funding from three foreign nations, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Job Sikhala alleged last week that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had received funding from Ghana, Nigeria and Taiwan. The three countries have denied bankrolling the opposition party’s operations.
”He has been suspended for bringing the party into disrepute and his case will be looked into at the national council meeting on Saturday,” said MDC spokesperson William Bango.
”He will remain suspended pending the determination of the national council meeting.”
Sikhala made an about-turn on Thursday, saying he was speculating on the cause of a bitter feud rocking the party when he raised the issue of money.
But the country’s police said it would still proceed with investigations into the Movement for Democratic Change’s funding.
”I was merely working on speculation on what was causing divisions in the MDC,” Sikhala was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror.
Sikhala could not be immediately reached for comment.
Zimbabwe’s laws prohibit external funding of local political parties.
The MDC has denied ever receiving foreign funding and Bango suggested Sikhala needed a psychiatric examination.
The leading opposition party has in recent weeks been rocked by divisions over participation in next month’s senatorial polls.
More than two dozen party members defied leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s calls to boycott the November 26 elections to the new upper house of Parliament and registered as candidates.
Crisis talks to close the growing rift over the polls ended in a stalemate on Monday. – Sapa-AFP